A Guide To Montreal Chinatown

Montreal Chinatownin the 1860s during a time when many Chinese immigrants traveled to Montreal to find work and better lives. They settled mainly in lower St. Laurent Blvd and de la Gauchetiere. Back in the 1940s, this area was considered the ‘bad’ part of town. St. Lawrence Blvd would have been where you’d come to find a girl or a gun. Vietnamese and Hong Kong residents have bought up much of the real estate in Montreal Chinatown, and it has become a vibrant community, a mixture of residential and commercial outlets where you can shop and eat, Grocers spill their wares out to the streets and dragon dances filter through the streets on holidays. You will commonly hear French, English, Mandarin, Vietnamese and Cantonese inside the shops and out in the streets.

Getting ThereThe best access to Montreal Chinatown, known as Quartier chinois in French, is from the Champ-De-Mars Metro Station. Once you’ve passed St Laurent, going down La Gauchetiere, you will come to the city center of Chinatown. All the lamps and arches you can see there were erected in 1982. Artists and architects in the community have done all the art work, which is based on Chinese mythology, allowing the Chinese residents to claim it more as their own. The Chinese community often celebrate Canadian holidays with festivals and tokens such as green fortune cookies for St. Patrick’s Day. The best times to visit will be when Chinese and Canadian holidays coincide so that you get a Chinese take on a Canadian holiday and a real traditional Chinese experience.